Conversation with Policemanz

"I was called by the hotel next door, warning me about these people. They are violent and abusive, among other things, and we don't want people like that for guests. So, could you please ..." and I made shooing gestures towards the people.

Don't you love coming in on the action?

Looky what I found!

As some of you know, I'm the night manager at an economy (NOT budget) hotel in Coeur d'Alene, ID. My primary responsibility is the safety and security of the hotel during the graveyard shift. I do it every evening; I don't get any nights off. Last night, around midnight, my front door buzzer starts blowing up. I quickly throw on my shorts and t-shirt and run upstairs, thinking that there is a potential guest at the door. It wasn't. It was a policeman. Oh, and five other police cars. I'm thinking "Oh, great. What NOW???" because I've had to call the cops two or three times over the last two months.

Having the boys in blue at your front door with their lights all ablaze is not great advertising for any hotel. Especially at this frequency. And SIX cars? Holy crap!

I open the door and he starts, literally,  pushing past me to get into the lobby. I stand in front of him, slightly indignant. He may be a police officer, but he owes me an explanation why he's at my door.

"Excuse me, officer. Is there something I can help you with?"

He looks at me, slightly confused, and says that I called for police support. (Um, I can vouch that this poor fellow isn't really the brightest bulb in the lamp.You know the type - as soon as they open their mouths, their level of intelligence is so glaringly low that Hollywood couldn't have hidden it with computerized special effects.)

"No. I'm the night manager and I didn't call anybody. Did one of my guests call you?"

One of the other cops yells something in the parking lot and he turns around to look. He abruptly walks off to get in his car. "Sorry to bother you," he shouts as he gets into his car. All of them speed off. Well, thank goodness it had nothing to do with my property.

Yet.

 About a half hour later, my front door buzzer is blowing up AGAIN. I'm like, WTF is it with people tonight?
This time, it's a young black kid. I open the door and can tell he's a little agitated.

"Do you need a room for the evening?"

"Yes. Do you have doubles?" he asks. He is standing ramrod straight, fidgets, and won't look me in the eye.

This is where I need to learn to trust my gut response, especially after working in the prison system in Texas. A person becomes highly sensitized to odd behavior in that kind of environment. But we are taught in this country that we shouldn't make snap decisions about people, which I agree with. However, we are not taught how to make a distinction between a snap decision and recognizing danger signals.

I told him yes, we did have rooms like that available. He tells me he'll need two rooms and he's going to get the rest of his party. He leaves and I wait in the lobby for about ten minutes for him to return. I almost gave up on him coming back when I get a phone call from the hotel next door to me.

"Have you had a group of black people show up to rent any rooms?"

I look out the window. "They just drove up."

The desk clerk on the other end says "Don't rent any rooms to them. They are violent and are very high on drugs. We just had the police come and evict them. We saw them driving in your direction and wanted to give you a heads up. But don't tell them that we called you because we don't want them coming back and causing more trouble."

Oh great. And now the kid is knocking on the front door, wanting in and a van full of his posse (I counted at least seven people) is parked in our portico.

"No problem. I'll tell them I got a call from the police warning me about them."

I hang up the phone and go to answer the door. Now there is a policeman standing behind the kid.

I open the door and the kid starts frantically yelling at me. I look at the officer and ask if I can speak to him privately for a minute. He comes in and this is what I tell him:

"I was called by the hotel next door, warning me about these people. They are violent and abusive, among other things, and we don't want people like that for guests. So, could you please ..." and I made shooing gestures towards the people.

He actually grinned at me. "Hey, no problem," and walks out the door. I scuttled my fat ass back behind the counter - in case shots got fired. It got loud and abrasive outside for a few minutes but quieted down. I saw the van drive off. I took a deep breath and thanked my lucky stars. Disaster averted.

I couldn't sleep all night, worried that they might come back and break windows, smash guests cars, or who knows what. Thankfully they didn't so, now, at 8am, I might be able to get a couple hours of sleep.

If I could find that cop, I'd buy him a beer.